“I think audiences get too comfortable and familiar in today’s movies,” said writer/director Christopher Nolanin 2002. “They believe everything they’re hearing and seeing. I like to shake that up.”

In nine films, Nolan has crafted a mathematician’s approach to luring audiences into realities only to question their very makeup. The films invariably follow similar characters: white guys of middle-age who have been deprived of family by violent means. These men deny truths about themselves and/or struggle to connect with the people closest to them. The term “auteur” is debased and often justly dismissed, but Nolan is one of the few who might earn the term — and even then there are big influences to factor in, such as his brother Jonathan Nolan, working partners David Goyer and Wally Pfister, and most importantly his wife and producing partner Emma Thomas.

On the eve of the release of Nolan’s latest film Interstellar, we’ve taken a look at it along with the other eight feature films that make up the bulk of his work. Read on for one examination of the films and find out how Christopher Nolan films ranked amongst his filmography.

This week a couple of good profiles have been published on Christopher Nolan in advance of his film Interstellar hitting theaters next week. The two main articles come from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and I recommend checking out both pieces. Together, the profiles feature a great deal of interesting information on the filmmaker and his latest film which I thought might be of interest. I have collected 15 of most interesting tidbits for you after the jump.

The running time for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar has been released by Warner Bros, and it looks to be the longest film Christopher Nolan has directed to date. How long is Interstellar? Find out after the jump alongside a comparison of Nolan’s previous film lengths.Read More »

From the earliest installments of his “[the films of]” project, I’ve noticed /Film commenters wondering if and when Kees van Dijkhuizen would get around to spotlighting Christopher Nolan. The British director inspires fervent devotion from movie geeks as few other filmmakers do, thanks to his wildly ambitious imagination, his masterful storytelling, and his eye for cool beauty, and van Dijkhuizen notes that he’s received “hundreds, literally hundreds of requests” for a video showcasing Nolan’s unique style.

Now, for the eleventh installment of his yearlong, twelve-part montage series, van Dijkhuizen has finally released “[the films of] Christopher Nolan,” with a sleek stylishness that serves fitting tribute to the Dark Knight director. Watch the video after the jump.

In my e-mail box this morning I found a movie trailer for the rerelease of Christopher Nolan‘s first feature film Following. The trailer does a good job of fusing an independently made black and white movie with faster paced editing and a soundtrack reminiscent of The Dark Knight and Nolan’s current box office success, Inception. Unfortunately the movie is not being rereleased theatrically. I contacted IFC and they told me that it is only being rereleased through their IFC video on demand service.

This actually brings in question the term “rerelease”, as the cut of the film appears to be the same as the previously released home video version. The film has been on Netflix for a while now (and as far as I can tell, still is). There doesn’t appear to be any new additional supplements. I’m not sure putting the film on demand should be given the term “rerelease,” and if so, I guess every time Back to the Future is aired on TBS, it’s being rereleased for cable?

Anyways, IFC has succeeded on one front — they got us to talk about Nolan’s Following being released on demand.Read More »

Netflix’s plan to bring streaming to the masses seems to be proceeding swimmingly. Under their “Netflix Watch Instantly” program they’ve been streaming a selection of 17,000 films on various platforms such as the PC, Roku, and Xbox 360 for quite some time now, and they recently added PS3 functionality with the promise of moving to the Wii in the future. But they’ve also been active on the content side, signing a groundbreaking deal with Starz last year to stream thousands of high-quality films. These moves have made “Watch Instantly” more than just a flirtation with new technology; indeed, “Watch Instantly” has become an essential part of most people’s Netflix subscriptions (available to anyone with at least an $8.99/month plan).

To this list of considerable accomplishments, they’ve added the acquisition of streaming rights to 53 films from IFC Entertainment.Read More »

Before he was the director of the second biggest film in box office history, and even before he garnered acclaim by telling a story of memory loss in reverse, Christopher Nolan broke onto the scene with Following. The multi-layered black and white crime noir thriller tells the story of Bill (Jeremy Theobald), an unemployed aspiring writer turned burglar, who becomes interested in one of the woman house owners he robs. He begins following her, and eventually begins seeing her. But things are not as they seem.

Nolan’s debut film, which screened at Slamdance in 1999, is being included as part of Slamdance’s 15 year anniversary celebration. A special screening will be held in Los Angeles at LACMA’s Bing Theater (5905 Wilshire) on Friday, September 5th at 8:00pm. The screening will include a question and answer session with Christopher Nolan, moderated by Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, and hosted reception for ticket holders to follow screening. Tickets are available for $20 through slamdance.com. No tickets will be available at the door.